Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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December 10th, 2020
Credit: ESA
Space Rider is Europe’s next-generation reusable transportation system for low Earth orbit.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space and co-contractor AVIO for the development of the automated reusable Space Rider transportation system, designed for deployment by the new Vega C light launcher into low Earth orbit.
A second contract covers the delivery of the ground segment by Italian co-prime contractors: Telespazio and Altec.
Space Rider would offer routine access to and return from space for a wide range of European space and non-space applications, including in-orbit research and technology demonstrations.
Credit: ESA
First flight of Space Rider is eyed for the third quarter of 2023 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Applications
Space Rider is about the size of two minivans.
The reentry module hosts the cargo bay, a roomy spot for nearly 1,765 pounds (800 kilograms) of customer payloads and attendant power supply, thermal control, and data handling gear.
The reentry module is powered in orbit by Vega-C’s upper stage AVUM+ enhanced with a life extension kit serving as a service module during missions of at least two months.
Credit: ESA-Jacky Huart
Space Rider can carry out complex maneuvering for experiments in space. An open cargo bay door gives a field of view to Earth or deep space, and fine pointing capability. Scientific experimentation in microgravity for pharmaceutics and biology are key examples of a Space Rider service.
Further applications include in-orbit demonstration and trial-runs of technologies, such as robotics for exploration, instrumentation for Earth observation, surveillance for Earth disaster monitoring, and satellites inspection.
Landing sites
At the end of a Space Rider mission, a final burn of the orbital module will send the reentry module with its user payloads towards the reentry trajectory for a smooth ride back to Earth with a soft precision landing on the ground. After payload recovery and minimal refurbishment, the Space Rider reentry module will be ready to take its next set of payloads on its follow-on mission.
Credit: ESA
Two Space Rider landing sites are viable: Kourou in French Guiana and Santa Maria in the Azores archipelago (Portugal). Kourou is considered as the primary landing site. Santa Maria is considered as the secondary landing site, suitable for high altitude inclination orbits.
Space Rider can be recovered along with its payload, refurbished, and reused for up to six missions, according to Thales Alenia Space.
Company duties
Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the development of the reentry module derived from the IXV, an experimental space shuttle made in Italy that was tested in 2015, with the strong support from the Italian space agency ASI.
AVIO, based in Colleferro, near Rome, Italy, is in charge of the propulsions system and the expendable service module.
Massimo Claudio, Comparini Senior Executive Vice President Observation, Exploration and Navigation at Thales Alenia Space said Space Rider would master technologies needed to further explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond and that the company is now ready to extend its expertise to future applications for point-to-point flights, spaceplanes, and even space tourism.
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Surface Sampling and Packing System work was led by Professor Yung Kai-leung.
Credit: PolyU
China’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return capsule is expected to touch down in China’s Inner Mongolia region next week.
If successful, Chang’e-5 would be the first robotic lunar-sample return mission since 1976 – Luna-24 carried out by the former Soviet Union.
Group photo of Professor Yung Kai-leung (middle) and his research team from PolyU’s Industrial Center.
Credit: PolyU
For Chang’e-5 the goal is to bring back up to 4.4 pounds (two kilograms) of Moon samples via robotic means.
The Moon sampling mission adopted two methods of lunar surface sampling: one using a robotic arm for multiple-point surface sample collections, and the other to drill underground.
The PolyU-developed system successfully completed the automatic sample collection and packaging on the lunar surface.
Credit: PolyU
Loose and sticky regolith
A research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) developed and manufactured the mission’s “Surface Sampling and Packing System,” in collaboration with the China Academy of Space Technology.
Tasked in 2011 to develop and fabricate the system, a team was led by Professor Yung Kai-leung, with a group of experts working on the effort from PolyU’s Industrial Center.
Sample cannister lowered into top of Chang’e-5’s ascender.
Credit: Xinhua/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Consisting of two samplers for collecting loose and sticky forms of lunar regolith, two near-field cameras, as well as a packaging and sealing system, the system has more than 400 components constructed in different materials including titanium alloy, aluminum alloy and stainless steel. That makes the instruments light in weight but at the same time durable and strong enough to withstand the harsh space environment, according to a PolyU statement.
The two samplers are more than a tool to acquire lunar regolith. They were also used to pick up and move the sample container from the lander and deposit Moon collectibles into the Chang’e-5 ascender vehicle – the module that lofted the samples into lunar orbit for transfer into the orbiter/returner vehicle.
China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission will attempt to haul back to Earth samples of the Moon.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
— Sampler A – Around 35 centimeters in length, Sampler A, in the shape of a shovel, is specifically engineered to gather loose regolith. The vibration and impact during the closing of the sampler is designed to dislodge excessive debris, chisel away large pieces of regolith, tightly enclose the samples and precisely deposit the selected samples into the container without contaminating the surrounding.
Ascender is discarded after transfer of lunar collectibles in this artist’s depiction.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
— Sampler B – Around 30 centimeters in length, Sampler B is used for collecting sticky samples by coring into the ground with teeth-like metal flaps when opened. It captured the targeted samples through the closing of these metal flaps. The piston inside the sampler pushes the sticky samples into the container during depositing of the sample when the flaps gradually open.
Photo taking during surface sampling.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
— Near-field Cameras – Heat resistant up to 130 degree Celsius, a near-field camera is attached to each sampler. These cameras yield a monitoring and vision guidance function to help select scientifically valuable lunar samples. The vision guidance function also enabled the sampler o deposit the samples into the container, grip the container and precisely transfer it into the ascender.
— Sealing and Packaging System – Weighing 1.5 kilograms, of which the sample container weighs only 360 grams and was used to seal and store the lunar samples for retuning to Earth. This system includes deployment of a funnel to protect the sample container from contamination when the lunar regolith was deposited and a sweeping action to brush away excessive sample to ensure the container lid could be closed properly.
Following fiery reentry, sample capsule is to land in Mongolia.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Complex chain of tasks
PolyU’s Yung underscores the pride he and his team felt to be part of the ground-breaking lunar sample accomplishment.
“Collecting a large amount of lunar samples via robotic means was unprecedented. From research, through design to manufacturing, the development of this system has required a very high level of innovation, precision and reliability,” Yung said in a statement. “A small glitch anywhere in the complex chain of necessary tasks could have instantly negated all the costly efforts made by those involved in the mission.”
The Surface Sampling and Packing System will be used for the Chang’e-6 lunar mission as well.
Go to this newly released video showing the sampling technology at:
A large, dark, shiny boulder called “Island Davaar” is visible in the distance – in the center of this image. It does not look like any other rocks in the surrounding landscape. This image was taken by Right Navigation Camera on Sol 2963, December 6, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2966 duties.
The rover has hit the road again, heading towards the contact with a rubbly-looking geologic unit on the way up Mount Sharp, reports Melissa Rice, a planetary geologist at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
The robot was scheduled to make a pit stop to look at a large, dark, shiny boulder called “Island Davaar” with its Mastcam filter set.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2965, December 8, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Rock from space?
“The boulder, which is visible in the distance from our current position,” Rice adds, “does not look like any other rocks in the surrounding landscape. Previously along Curiosity’s traverse, rocks that are distinctly dark and shiny have turned out to be iron meteorites.”
A recent mid-drive imaging by Curiosity will help scientists determine whether “Island Davaar” comes from a different geologic unit in Mount Sharp, or whether it is indeed a rock from space.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B photo acquired on Sol 2965, December 8, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The boulder’s spectrum in visible and near-infrared light, as seen from Mastcam’s fourteen different filters, will have a distinct shape if it is an iron meteorite,” Rice explains.
Curiosity was to wrap up science observations from its current location, Rice concludes, including Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) observations of the bedrock target “Achnasheen,” Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) observations on two other rock targets (“Rattray” and “White Coomb”), and Mastcam imaging of regions in front of the rover and out towards the horizon.
China’s returner spacecraft and re-entry capsule containing lunar samples.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Chang’e-5 ascender vehicle has been purposely ditched on the Moon – the hardware used to transfer lunar samples to the orbiter/returner vehicles.
The returner craft will fly back to Earth with its cargo of lunar specimens via an Earth-Moon transfer orbit shortly. After reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, the return capsule is slated to land under parachute in the Siziwang Banner of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The next step in the Chang’e-5 mission is separation between the returner and orbiter prior to the journey back to China.
High-speed dive
According to Ren Junjie, a researcher of Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center under the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the separation is expected to take place in the next few days.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The re-entry capsule will handle the high-speed dive into the Earth’s atmosphere like a stone can skip over water. The return capsule will sprint into the atmosphere and then ascend again out of the atmosphere, reducing its speed to around eight kilometers per second, before landing at its designated site.
“We designed these separations to reduce fuel consumption in the following procedure, Ren said in a China Central Television (CCTV) interview. An inflatable aerodynamic decelerator and thermal protection system (TPS) will be used to control performance.
Zha Xuelei, vice chief engineer of Chang’e-5 probe from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, said “we’ve cleverly enabled, by design, the returner to skip the atmosphere and detect how fast the Earth is rotating. It is done in a way similar to how we dealt with the re-entry of Shenzhou spacecraft’s returners when the speed was appropriate for its re-entry.”
Lunar sample laboratory
The Chang’e-5 mission, comprised of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, was launched on November 24. The lander-ascender combination touched down at Mons Rümker, a 70-kilometer-wide volcanic mound in the region known as Oceanus Procellarum — Latin for “Ocean of Storms” — on the Moon’s near side.
Part of China’s lunar sample receiving laboratory.
Credit: G. L. Zhang, et al.
According to the China Global Television Network (CGTN), the Chang’e-5 lunar samples will be sent to a lunar sample laboratory at the National Astronomical Observatory (NAO) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, for storage, processing and analysis.
Once it has landed on Earth, the samples will be transferred to the lab in a sealed container. The lab has a special facility that will prevent the sample from being contaminated by the atmosphere and water on Earth, CGTN reports.
Some of the sample will also be set aside for public display, according to Li Chunlai, deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-5 mission.
Go to this recent CCTV video discussing the return of the lunar samples to Earth at:
Ascender (left) departs orbiter/returner.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Chang’e-5 mission performed an aerial ballet above the Moon, an uncrewed rendezvous and docking of spacecraft and transfer of collected samples in lunar orbit.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
At 23:10 (Beijing Time) on December 3, the ascender of Chang’e-5 took off from the lunar surface with its cache of Moon samples.
At 05:42 (Beijing Time) on December 6, the ascender successfully rendezvoused and docked with the orbiter-returner combination on the lunar orbit, and at 06:12, the lunar samples were transferred to the returner of Chang’e-5.
Beyond expectations
“The transfer of lunar samples of the Chang’e-5,” said Ye Peijian, the chief director of Chang’e-5 program, “is what has never been done before in the world. The rendezvous and docking of the ascender and the combination of orbiter and returner is also the first time in the world. I think we have done a great job. Actually, it has been completed beyond my expectation,” Ye told China Central Television (CCTV).
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Yang Yuguang, Vice Chairman, Space Transportation Committee, said the orbiter and re-entry capsule combination has a mass about 2.3 tons while the ascender has a mass about 400 kilograms.
Engineers at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (COSIC) developed techniques and technologies for the automated rendezvous and docking for Chang’e-5 mission.
Credit: COSIC via CGTN
Crash cushions
In a China Global Television Network (CGTN) story, engineers at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (COSIC) detailed the technologies they developed for the Chang’e-5 mission: an accelerometer, crash cushions or dampers to reduce impact of docking, while microwave radar served as the eyes of the ascender-orbiter pair to “look” at each other.
COSIC specialists performed months of experiments and carried out 15 simulations to assure the radars would work as intended, even taking the interference of lunar dust into consideration.
Having completed its mission, the Chang’e-5’s ascender separated from the orbiter-sample return vehicle.
Returner spacecraft carries re-entry capsule and its cache of lunar samples.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
According to Gao Lei, a CNSA official, the orbiter-returner will orbit the Moon for about six to seven days. It will then enter an Earth-Moon transfer orbit, and experience another three to four days of flight before returning to Earth.
New videos
For new videos showcasing the lunar rendezvous and docking tasks, go to:
— Chang’e-5 orbiter-sample return vehicle separates from ascender.
— Chang’e-5 – rendezvous and docking explained. Li Gefei (researcher, Beijing Aerospace Control Center) explains the rendezvous maneuvers and Peng Jing (deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-5 probe) explains the docking process.
— Docking, Separation of Chang’e-5 Modules Conquer Technical Difficulties: Experts
Artistic view of Lunar Trailblazer.
Credit: Lockheed Martin
There is big science via small satellites to help appreciate the lunar water cycle – how it forms, its abundance, and location related to geology.
To help find the answers, high on the launch list is Lunar Trailblazer, a mission selected under NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program.
Last month, it passed a Key Decision Point-C milestone, obtaining NASA endorsement to begin final design of hardware and build. Its launch is currently planned for February 2025 and is slated to get a ride on NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission.
The flight system delivery is October 2022. NASA is also investigating potential for an earlier ride for the spacecraft, Ehlmann told Inside Outer Space.
“Passing this key decision point means we have the green flag to proceed with production on the spacecraft. I’m very excited to see all the big science this compact spacecraft will surely bring back to us,” said Joshua Wood, Lockheed Martin Lunar Trailblazer program manager.
Lockheed Martin Space will build and integrate the Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft at its Waterton facility, located near Denver, Colorado.
Artist’s rendering of water ice in the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions.
Credit: Hongyu Cui
Reflect on this
Peering into the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions, Lunar Trailblazer will detect signatures of ice in reflected light, and it will pinpoint the locations of micro-cold traps less than a football field in size.
Collecting measurements at multiple times of day over sunlit regions, the mission will help scientists understand whether the water signature on the illuminated surface changes as the lunar surface temperature changes by hundreds of degrees over the course of a lunar day.
By measuring both direct light and low levels of terrain-scattered light, Lunar Trailblazer will generate comprehensive maps of surface water ice, even in the Moon’s darkest regions.
Credit: NASA
Scanning the landscape
The Lunar Trailblazer satellite will measure just under 12 feet (3.5 meters) in length with its solar panels fully deployed. The craft will spend over a year orbiting the Moon at a height of 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar landscape, scanning it with two instruments: a visible-shortwave infrared imaging spectrometer built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a multispectral thermal imager built by the University of Oxford.
Helping to answer big planetary science questions with a small satellite gets a thumbs up by Bethany Ehlmann, the mission’s principal investigator, of Caltech.
“Given the importance of water on the Moon for future robotic and human missions, Lunar Trailblazer will provide critical basemaps to guide future exploration,” Ehlmann said in a NASA statement.
For more information on NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission, visit:
https://trailblazer.caltech.edu/
Also go to my Scientific American story on the search for water resources on the Moon at:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-hunt-for-lunar-water-intensifies/
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The ascender of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission successfully rendezvoused and docked with the orbiter-returner spacecraft segments in lunar orbit, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced Sunday.
Samples collected from Oceanus Procellarum were transferred from the ascender to the returner. The orbiter-returner has now separated from the ascender, and is waiting for the right timing to return to Earth.
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“According to Beijing’s real-time data, monitoring and judging, the sample transfer is completed normally. The returner hatch is closed, and the following work will continue according to the flight control plan,” said Liu Jiangang, chief dispatcher of Chang’e-5 mission Beijing base in a China Central Television (CCTV-Plus) interview.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
Step-by-step
Launched on November 24, the Chang’e-5 mission consists of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner.
On December 1, the lander-ascender combination touched down on the north of Mons Rümker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms.
On December 3, after lunar samples were collected and sealed, the Chang’e-5 ascender rocketed off the Moon to join up with the orbiter/returner segments.
Meanwhile, all the data gathered by the scientific payloads on China’s Chang’e-5 probe has been sent back to the Earth. Researchers are now busy analyzing the data about the landing site.
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Science payloads
The lander of the Chang’e-5 carried four science payloads to the moon, including a landing camera, a panoramic camera, a lunar soil structure detector and a lunar mineralogical spectrometer.
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“During the landing process, the landing camera snapped multiple photos of the lunar surface. After that, the other three payloads started to work and collected lunar surface data for scientific research,” said Fu Qiang, the chief designer of the Operation and Management Subsystem of the Chang’e-5 mission ground application system in a CCTV-Plus interview.
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Soil structure
Fu said that the lunar soil structure detector explored the soil before and after the drilling of samples, collecting information about the difference of the soil structure several meters under the lunar surface.
The panoramic camera took multiple panoramic photos of the landing site before and after the collection of lunar surface samples. Over 700 photos of the lunar surface were obtained.
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“During the collection of lunar surface samples, the lunar mineralogical spectrometer conducted a dozen full-spectrum explorations of the sampling site, the rocks and the lunar surface soil,” Fu added. “It also completed a full-field multispectral scanning for the sampling site. So far, all the scientific data has been sent back to the Earth and our research team is processing and analyzing the data.”
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Rock sizes
Ren Xin, the director designer of Chang’e-5 mission ground application system, said a panoramic image was created by stitching together 120 photos taken by the panoramic camera after the landing and before the collection of lunar surface samples.
“By enlarging the image, we can see a crater on the left which has a rough surface with a lot of gravel, which means the crater is quite young,” Ren added. “In other areas, we can also find that the surface is quite rough with rocks of different sizes. This is different from the lunar surface images sent back by Chang’e-4 and shows that the age of the lunar surface at Chang’e-5’s landing site is younger than that of the Chang’e-4.”
The orbiter and returner successfully separated from the spacecraft’s ascender.
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Earth return
The orbiter and returner combination of China’s Chang’e-5 probe successfully separated from the spacecraft’s ascender at 12:35 Sunday (Beijing Time), according to the CNSA.
Credit: CCTV-Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“After its separation from the ascender at noon, the orbiter-returner combination will orbit the Moon for about six to seven days, then enter the Earth-moon transfer orbit, and experience another three to four days’ flight before returning to Earth,” said Gao Lei, an official of CNSA’s lunar exploration program told CCTV-Plus.
The returner of the mission is expected to release the sample-carrying capsule for a landing at the Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in mid-December.
Go to these new CCTV-Plus videos:
Chang’e-5 beams back data gathered by scientific payloads at:
The Chang’e-5 ascender’s rendezvous and docking with the orbiter-returner can be viewed at:
Video showing release of ascender at:
Curiosity’s Location on Sol 2959. Distance driven 14.68 miles (23.63 kilometers).
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2962 tasks.
The rover is marching forward, reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at the University of Michigan. “Curiosity continues to make swift progress on her climb up Mt. Sharp. After ascending a relatively steep portion over the last few weeks, Curiosity is now on “’flatter’ ground and covering lots of ground with each drive,” he explains.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2961, December 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Interesting outcrops
Curiosity recently stopped to investigate the local bedrock and to acquire some long-distance and high-resolution images of the interesting outcrops that lie ahead.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo acquired on Sol 2960, December 3, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
The team selected four targets to analyze using the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument to better characterize the chemistry of the local bedrock.
“Three of these targets are designed to characterize color variations in relatively smooth bedrock,” Salvatore adds, “while the final target was selected to investigate a more nodular piece of bedrock observed in front of the rover.
Two long-distance Mastcam color mosaics of some likely geologic transitions located ahead of the rover were planned, as well as a Mastcam multispectral observation of two large boulders to the east.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2961, December 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Compositional differences
“These multispectral observations will help the team to determine whether there are compositional differences between the boulders and the surrounding landscape, which could help to decipher the origin of the boulders and whether they represent more exotic geologic units than those currently being explored,” Salvatore reports. “In the coming days, Curiosity will stick around at this location as we gather more data and perform some routine rover maintenance before continuing her march to the east.”
Box indicates Chang’e 5 lander on the basaltic plains of Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”) on December 2, 2020. The lander is the bright spot in the center of the outline. The areas around the lander has been brightened due to the descent engine plume impingement on the surface (similar to what has been observed at other landing sites).
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Here is the first look from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) of China’s recent Moon lander – Chang’e-5.
Box indicates China’s Chang’e-5 lander on the basaltic plains of Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”) on December 2, 2020.
The team supporting the LRO’s super-powerful LROC camera computed the coordinates of the lander to be 43.0576° N, 308.0839°E, –2570 m elevation, with an estimated accuracy of plus-or-minus 20 meters.
The lander is the bright spot in the center of the outline.
The areas around the lander has been brightened due to the descent engine plume residue on the surface which is similar to what has been observed at other landing sites, according to LROC-central at ASU.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
Ascender powers into lunar orbit.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return capsule is preparing for transit back to Earth. The mission’s lander/ascender spent about 19 hours snagging samples from the Moon’s surface on Thursday and completed the country’s first-ever takeoff from an extraterrestrial body.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Carrying its precious cargo of lunar collectibles, the ascender module of the Chang’e-5 lander spacecraft powered itself into Moon orbit to rendezvous and dock with other mission modules.
“It took six minutes for the module to enter into the lunar orbit after taking off and seven minutes later, it unfolded its solar panels. It is impossible for us to intervene during such a short period of time if anything happens. So, we have made special designs to enable the module to make decisions on its own,” said Xing Zhuoyi, a designer of the Chang’e-5 probe from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
The ascender module will dock with the orbiter/returner modules, transferring the lunar sample container into those elements.
“After the docking, the combination of orbiter and returner will stay in orbit for a few days. It will be waiting for a specific window period that allows the combination to return to the Earth, said Xing in a China Central Television (CCTV) interview.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Skip re-entry
In depositing the sample-carrying capsule into the Earth’s atmosphere, designers have developed a skip reentry method mimicking a skipping stone to lower the craft’s speed and protect it during the scorching reentry.
“The speed is too high because of the reentry at the second cosmic velocity. So we need to reduce the speed through the inflatable aerodynamic decelerator,” said Shu Yan, chief designer of the Chang’e-5 mission. “By this way, the returner can re-enter the atmosphere at a lower speed, like the Shenzhou spacecraft, and successfully return to the Earth.”
Capsule return with Moon samples, landing at Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The lunar rocks and soil gathered by Chang’e 5’s lander/ascender combination are scheduled to parachute into a preset site in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region in mid-December.
Experimental spacecraft
China launched an experimental spacecraft on October 24, 2014, to test technologies used for the Chang’e-5 mission.
Comprising a re-entry capsule and a service module, that craft flew halfway around the Moon. After the re-entry and service capsules separated, the re-entry vehicle approached Earth’s atmosphere at about 11.2 km per second.
Following a circumlunar voyage in 2014, a return capsule parachuted to Earth. This test was a prelude to China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission.
Courtesy: China Space
That test return capsule touched down at the designated landing area in Siziwang Banner, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on November 1, 2014.
The service module flew back to orbit the moon for further tests and reached the L2 point of the Earth-Moon system to conduct experiments.
Go to these newly issued CCTV videos detailing the Chang’e-5 mission:
